She looked at me.

“I say, Yva, that I am willing to go if you come with us.  Not otherwise.”

“I say,” said Bickley, “that I want to see all this supernatural rubbish thoroughly exploded, and that therefore I should prefer to go on with the business.”

“And I say,” said Bastin, “that my most earnest desire is to be clear of the whole thing, which wearies and perplexes me more than I can tell.  Only I am not going to run away, unless you think it desirable to do so too, Lady Yva.  I want you to understand that I am not in the least afraid of the Lord Oro, and do not for one moment believe that he will be allowed to bring about disaster to the world, as I understand is his wicked object.  Therefore on the whole I am indifferent and quite prepared to accept any decision at which the rest of you may arrive.”

“Be it understood,” said Yva with a little smile when Bastin had finished his sermonette, “that I must join my father in the bowels of the earth for a reason which will be made plain afterwards.  Therefore, if you go we part, as I think to meet no more.  Still my advice is that you should go.” *

( * It is fortunate that we did not accept Yva’s offer.  Had we done so we should have found ourselves shut in, and perished, as shall be told.—­H.  A. )

To this our only answer was to attend to the lighting of our lamps and the disposal of our small impedimenta, such as our tins of oil and water bottles.  Yva noted this and laughed outright.

“Courage did not die with the Sons of Wisdom,” she said.

Then we set out, Yva walking ahead of us and Tommy frisking at her side.

Our road led us through the temple.  As we passed the great gates I started, for there, in the centre of that glorious building, I perceived a change.  The statue of Fate was no more!  It lay broken upon the pavement among those fragments of its two worshippers which I had seen shaken down some hours before.

“What does this mean?” I whispered to Yva.  “I have felt no other earthquake.”

“I do not know,” she answered, “or if I know I may not say.  Yet learn that no god can live on without a single worshipper, and, in a fashion, that idol was alive, though this you will not believe.”

“How very remarkable,” said Bastin, contemplating the ruin.  “If I were superstitious, which I am not, I should say that this occurrence was an omen indicating the final fall of a false god.  At any rate it is dead now, and I wonder what caused it?”

“I felt an earth tremor last night,” said Bickley, “though it is odd that it should only have affected this particular statue.  A thousand pities, for it was a wonderful work of art.”

Then I remembered and reminded Bickley of the crash which we had heard while Yva and Bastin were absent on some secret business in the chamber.